Microsoft

For some time I noticed that it took like forever to open my Windows Downloads folder. Even on an i7 32 GB SSD device it took about 10 seconds (!) for me to view the files in my Downloads directory. The slow loading Downloads (or other folder!) folder problem occurs, because, by default, Windows is trying to create thumbnails.

This is how to solve this problem :

Open File Explorer. You can get there by hitting Windows key & E, go to your downloads folder and select properties :

For the last couple of years I’m using Evernote. And frankly.. I’m quite happy with Evernote. But besides Evernote, I’m also using EverNote for Business purposes and why not use EverNote for both of them?

Evernote Premium costs $ 49,99 or $ 59,99 yearly and when you are already using Microsoft Office 365 ($69,99 yearly) that seems a bit unnecessary.

I never investigated how to migrate from EverNote to another solution but found out that’s be very easy. Microsoft developed a migration tool which is very easily to use.

I’m moving more and more of my whitebox environment towards Azure. But some parts are still running in my home environment. So I would like to create a Site-to-site VPN between my office @home and Azure. Because an Express Route would be slightly overkill I decided to build an Site 2 Site VPN.

Some information about my test environment @home. I’m running a Hypervisor in a seperate tenant with only 2 virtual machines : pfSense and a Windows 10 virtual machine.

Let me take you through the steps of creating a Site2Site VPN, hold on!

First make sure that you have a proper working pfSense (2 NIC) instance running.

You will need at least one public IP address (IPV4), so you probably need a business internet line because consumer internet lines don’t often have static public IP addresses. You need to configure IP Addresses, not DNS names, so DynDNS is no option I’m afraid.

For testing purposes it’s easy to have a Windows 10 client standing by

Ok, let’s go! First download and install pfSense and the Windows 10 VM. My pfSense virtual machine has 2 network adapters, One WAN (Bridged mode) and one Custom (VMNet 10). The Windows 10 is in the same custome mode (VMNet 10) and is running in a separate subnet (192.168.1.X). Make sure that the LAN interface of pfSense is running the DHCP service.

Log on to the Windows 10 virtual machine and check if you have internet Access :

Check! (great website btw :-)) We have internet access!

Now login to Azure, select your subscription and check create a Virtual Network. In my situation I already had a virtual network (the network I would like to connect to). I only had to make an adjustment.

In my virtual network (@Azure) the following resources are running :

As you can see my network is using the 10.0.0.0 subnet. It was created using the /24 mask but I had to change that to /23. So now my virtual Network is running the 10.0.0.0/23 subnet. You can also create a new virtual network to connect to. For this example let’s use the following information :

In my environment I’m using the same IP addresses. You can choose your own name(s). Now go to the virtual network you’re running or just have created and go to subnets. Click +Gateway subnet.

Add the following information :

Now we are going to create a new Virtual Network Gateway :

Use the following information :

Give it a new, use VPN/Route-based. Choose Basic for SKU (is enough, can be upscaled later). Create a new public IP for your VPN and select the subscription and resource group. Choose to create and wait approx 30 min.

Now we must create a Local Network Gateway :

You can choose your own name, make sure to use your public IP address of the WAN Adapter of pfSense. Choose to create your local network gateway. This can take approx 45 minutes.

Now go to the local network gateway you have just created and go to connections.

Give it a name, a think about a very long & secure Pre Shared Key. Remember this. You will need it later on!

Ok…. #Azure #work #done… now fire up the pfSense interface :

Go to VPN/IPSec. Click on Add P1 at bottom right. This is the first phase of the IPsec tunnel negotiation. Fill out these values and make sure that you replace it with your specific IP. You can find your Azure Public IP here :

Ok, you will need these neccessary info for Phase 1:

For Phase 1 Proposal (Authentication) use the values and I hope you still know your shared private key 🙂 :

For Phase 1 Proposal (Algorithms) use the values :

Use these Advanced options :

Now go to VPN / IPsec / Tunnels

Expand Show Phase 2 Entries and Click Add P2 :

Use the following information (General Information) :

Use the following information (proposal) :

Leave the Advanced configuration default :

Now let’s open pfSense a bit, let’s allow the firewall IPsec traffic. In orde to do that, from the main menu go to Firewall, Rules and then click on the IPsec sub-menu.

Ok, now we are done! Great job… but let’s test it first! Go to the Windows 10 test VM. In Azure I opened RDP and Ping for testing purposes.

As you can see from my internal network @home I can ping and RDP to the INTERNAL (!) IP Address of my Azure resources. Job well done!

A couple of days while I was driving to the beach I noticed a problem with one of my machines running on Azure. Ofcourse I didn’t bring my laptop, so I first tried the Azure App in real life. I was very pleased. You can’t always predict what will happen or when, but you can be prepared. That’s where the recently updated, Azure mobile app comes in. Stay connected to your Azure resources – anytime, anywhere.

Using the App it’s possible to :

Check status and critical metrics of your Azure resources

Get notifications and alerts about important health issues

Performance simple operations to resolve common issues

Run powerful Azure Cloud Shell scripts in the App

You can take the power of Azure with you on your mobile phone/tablet!

After downloading the App from the store, it was very easy to get it up and running (support for MFA).

In my case I tested the Android version, but there is a iOS version also. Normally I don’t prefer working on my phone or tablet but just using my laptop or desktop but sometimes it’s very handy to be able to quickly restart a VM for example. Or see the load (metrics) of some of your services. Even be able to receive notifications is very handy!

The Azure app puts every subscription from every service in your pocket. Scroll through all your resources and resource groups, search by name, or filter by resource to find the resource you need.

Each resource includes the following information (when applicable):

Status

Number of errors in the past week

Important properties (Essentials)

Key usage metrics

Related resources

All resource properties

For those of you with a lot of subscriptions and resources, scrolling and filtering – on your mobile device! – might get a little tedious. Save swipes and taps by adding the resources you want to keep a close eye on to your favorites list. Just open the resource, tap the star, and go! The next time you open the app, you will start on the favorites tab to help get you to your resources faster than ever.

Perhaps the most important aspect of building your business in the cloud is the confidence and knowledge that everything’s up and running and your customers aren’t impacted by unexpected events. With the Azure app at hand, you’ll never need to guess. Just open the Notifications tab for a personalized list of Azure health alerts and important metrics that you’re monitoring for your resources.

If any of your resources in the selected subscription have been impacted by an Azure health event over the last week, you’ll see the details listed on the Notifications tab. Every health alert includes:

In addition to getting metric alerts on the Notifications tab, you’ll also be notified about these alerts when you visit resource details. Just tap the notification to open the details.

Many services offer simple commands to help you resolve common issues for your resources from the Azure app:

Suspend and resume Analysis Services servers

Open the API Management portal in the browser

Start, stop, and restart App Service web apps and deployment slots

Start and stop App Service environments

Restart all App Service web apps in a plan or environment

Open App Service web apps and deployment slots in the browser

Start and stop Content Delivery Network endpoints

Start, stop, and swap cloud service slots

Open the HDInsight portal in the browser

Open Log Analytics workspaces in the Operations Management Suite app

Enable and disable Logic App workflows

Enable and disable Scheduler job collections

Start and stop Stream Analytics jobs

Start, stop, and restart virtual machines

Connect to Windows virtual machines using the RDP app

Start, stop, and restart virtual machine scale set instances

Open Visual Studio Team Services accounts in the browser

Of course, many more are on the way. As a companion app for mobile workers, the Azure app doesn’t include every feature in the Azure portal, but as you can see it provides great flexibility while using your phone or tablet.

I think the Azure App is a need to have for every Azure administrator! Just download the app in the appstore and let me know what your thank about the app!